IE 7 on Automatic Update

There is chatter going on that we will withdraw the plans to deploy IE 7 through Automatic Update. I am in Redmond at the moment and talked to the IE 7 team. At the moment it is planned to release IE 7 to Web this month and it will be on AU after this.

This means for you:

  • If you are patching your machines internally within your company through AU and do not want to make sure that IE 7 is not installed on your machines, deploy the blocking toolkit by November 1st at latest. I do not say that we will release it to AU by then, but we will not do it any sooner
  • If you are patching through WSUS, SMS or anything else, you would have to approve the installation anyway
  • The consumers will get IE 7 some when after November 1st. Therefore, a final call: Test all you Internet-facing sites for compatibility with IE 7

Roger